Due to professional conflicts, Nancy Arnold has had to move on from Muscle Ventures. I'll really miss her.
In this podcast (Quicktime ipod compatible, 31MB; Google streaming flash video), I (Bud) report some unfortunate news. Due to professional conflicts, Nancy Arnold has had to move on from Muscle Ventures. I have agreed with Nancy not to publicly go into the details of her decision beyond what I have just related. Instead, I'd like to spend the post chronicling Nancy's contribution to this site that she helped me start 14 months ago.
Nancy and I started Muscle Ventures in February 2006 after we had been training together for a bit over a year. She was in the midst of dieting and preparing for a bodybuilding competition, and we were doing exercise analyses. We had started on my now suspended Michigan Muscle Boy blog and wanted to share the credit.
We didn't really kick into high gear though until April when we chronicled the last month of her competition preparation. If you look in that month, you'll see some things that are similar and some that are different from what had become our recent posting pattern. There was an intense focus on bodybuilding and many interviews with different players. It was a fun, focused, intense time. You might have thought the site was dedicated to bodybuilding competition. Since, we kept up the interviews but diversified the focus covering things like the gym business and the Michigan Mountain Biking Association.
Nancy's recent trip to Northern Kentucky was a continuation of that diversification. Unfortunately, we won't be able to continue that series at this time but may be able to complete it in the future. The last episode, which we won't show now, goes into her indecision on whether or not to compete in Kentucky. She liked the venue, but the show was long.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention how close Nancy and I became personally. All of this fitness blogging business started around the time of my mother's death, and Nancy was a tremendous support. I enjoyed working out with her immensely. She will be missed from this site and from our gym sessions together.
As I mention in the podcast, the site will continue. I have several ideas planned at Gold's Gym, Ann Arbor as well as other gyms in the Southeast Michigan area.
Additional Links
- We started the exercise analysis series on Michigan Muscle Boy with this gem.
- Here, I reviewed Nancy's hometown gym, the Outback, in Dexter.
- Nancy continues at NCAFitness, her business that we discussed in this series.
